The Girls

Here are a few pictures of the girls from January.

I have been trying to be more of a fun mom lately. I let them paint the tub with colored shaving cream (an idea from the web). But just beware... it calls for food coloring that doesn't come off so easily.

I love these little Japanese pj's  for Vivian. I might have to get some new ones. She has definitely grown out of these.

Annabelle went and put a ton of her bows in her hair one day.

The view from the top.

Eedie, the bag lady... and her Shrek headband.

Becoming percussionists... one of Mommy's worst nightmares! =)

They were actually fighting over the drum.

At the beginning of January, Annabelle started Primary at church. Primary is for kids age 3-11 in our church and they go for the second 2 hours of our 3 hour church day.

They got a crown for being a "child of God", and got to color a picture of a child.

I think she was starting to sing.

Uncle Derek and Aunt Sarah sent some Christmas gifts so we got to open those one night.

Eedie was excited.

They got some hair bows,

some movies,

and some stuffed animals.

Vivian with one of the stuffed  animals.

We're back to trying new Japanese treats for Family Home Evening. This particular week we had an apple jello type dessert, a Swiss cake type role, and what I thought was my favorite yogurt type drink. Ended up being soy milk.

The girls have enjoyed using the hall closet as a hiding place.

Both of them.

Vivian is beginning to bust out of some of her clothes... case in point.

This was another FHE treat from another week. Little chocolate and strawberry treats, grapefruit gummies and yes! I found some of this yogurt drink that I love so much!

Mike and the girls wanted to build a tower.

This one fell pretty soon.

Then the bigger one.

The fall.

Christmas at the Jones' House

Since we got home Christmas night, we asked Santa to hold off coming to our house until the following weekend and he did not disappoint!

Eedie, after she got  up and was still in a daze.

Annabelle was so excited to show Eedie the tree.

Now she's getting excited!

NeNe and Pappy wanted to watch us open presents on Skype (they sent many of the presents that were under the tree) so we decided to eat the famous Ebelskiver Jones breakfast. We are still working on perfecting the ebelskivers, but Eedie sure enjoyed them!

So did Annabelle!

Trying to figure out how to use the new camera!

Let the games begin!

Little People Princesses

A magnetic dress up doll kit

A lady bug nite lite (we have been using this every night since we got it!).

So big!

A toy vacuum cleaner that actually sucks up dirt!

A Barbie Trike

Little People Princess Castle

Aunt Dottie even sent gifts! She is so thoughtful!

Someone Mike works with bought these overalls for Vivian. They are a little big... but we'll get use for at least two kids out of them!

Mike's assistant, Kaorie, bought the girls these stockings with Japanese goodies inside. They are hard plastic but fit Eedie perfectly!

Japan Feels New Again

Things were almost like new when we got back...

A new lemon drink

We went to the mall on New Year's Eve and found these cute little donuts.

We bought one of the donuts and this bread. The doughnut was pretty tasty. The cream in the middle was really good. The bread was some kind of pecan bread. Not all that flavorful.

We sat down in front of a store called "niko and..." to eat our treats. We just wondered what a "flying sale" is. I was talking to my Japanese neighbor about it though and she said maybe it was supposed to be "final sale".

These benches have always been at this mall but we just now realized they were actually benches!

Annabelle almost fell through.

In front of the benches were these big lockers.

The girls thought it was fun to hide in them.

And oh Japanese traffic, how we missed you so.

Vivian at 2 Months

Vivian and her 2 month stats:
 
12 lbs.  (60th%ile)

22.5 in (40th%ile)

Definitely our biggest baby. Here are some pictures.

 

Christmas and Heading Home

I couldn't get very many good pictures of our Christmas with the Jones'. The lighting was bad and I was still trying to figure out how to use the camera and something besides auto. But here are a couple pictures.

Stickers with Emma.

Annabelle and Eedie with their super cute wool pouches they got from Emma and Fletcher.

The pouches had gum and some lip gloss that Annabelle is applying here.

Vivian just chillaxin'.

Heading home...

The morning we were getting ready to fly out to Tokyo, we walked in to find Eedie had puked all over. We were super nervous she was going to be sick the whole way, but apparently, as there were no other incidents, she just had too much candy the night before!

Back on the plane, in the bassinet.

The flight was 11 hours going back from LA to Tokyo!

This was a special Christmas dinner. Turkey with gravy, potatoes, brussel sprouts, dressing, a roll, some kind of shrimp couscous salad, and a chocolate swiss roll. We flew back on Christmas Eve and ended up getting back Christmas Day. Mike had to work the 26th.

 For some entertainment on the way back...

We had foam sticker presents for our trees...

...and Minnie Mouse activity kits....

along with treats and movies on the Kindle. The girls watched Dinosaur Train. They probably would have watched it the entire time if we let them, they love that show. Eedie slept the best, about 5-6 hours and Annabelle only slept for 2. Vivian was in and out and mostly did pretty well.

It's nice to have our own space back and everything, but we were super sad to leave. We'll just have to try and keep ourselves busy this next year and a half.